Mirza Yawar Baig – Teaching to Transform

Mirza Yawar Baig
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AI: Summary ©

The importance of measuring success in business and creating a system for schools to measure success is emphasized. The speakers emphasize the need for education and schooling to protect employees and their families, as well as the importance of learning and standing up for teachers to create an equitable and collaborative society. The speakers also emphasize the need for consistency and persistence in school operations, listening to students, and learning from them to improve school success. The importance of creating a legacy of learning for all children is emphasized.

AI: Summary ©

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			Salam Alaikum, around the labor.
		
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			Picture this, someone comes to you. And as I'm planning to start a school, what curriculum should I
use? I can bet you that most of you will suggest some curriculum, which you think is a good one.
		
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			However, the same person comes to you
		
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			and says, I'm planning to build a factory, what machinery should be, should I get should I get?
		
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			You will never say, by Cummins, or what Silla or Volvo or Caterpillar, you will ask, what is a
vector for? What are you planning to produce?
		
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			Now think of the school as a factory?
		
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			How many of us asked this question before we talk about curriculum delivers teachers or anything
else?
		
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			What is the school for? What is your final product? Do we ask this question?
		
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			And that's like asking, what machinery Should we buy?
		
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			How would you ask that question?
		
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			Unless you know, what they want to produce, obviously, the machinery to produce aeroplanes is
different from the machinery to produce teachers.
		
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			So unless you are clear about the product, there is no way that you can answer any question
regarding machinery and the rest of it, who should I hire? What is what is the I want to hire
people? What qualifications that I look for and so on and so on and so on. None of those things can
be answered unless we are clear about what is it that we are trying to produce?
		
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			So I want to ask you,
		
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			what is the goal of the school?
		
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			What is the final product look like? What must he or she be able to do? Do you have that defined for
your school?
		
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			If you have defined it, who knows it?
		
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			How do you monitor results? What are your metrics? Because the reality is that what you don't
measure, you don't know what you don't know, you can't control or guarantee. What you don't measure,
you cannot improve.
		
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			In the words of Michael Harry, the designer of Motorola's Six Sigma quality program. He said a
wonderful thing. He said, If you want to see what someone values, see what they measure,
		
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			if you want to see what someone values, see what they measure, and believe me never were more wiser
words spoken.
		
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			To give you an example, we claim to value time and we say time is money, but we waste time, but we
don't waste money.
		
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			If you lose a $20 bill, father your pocket, you will feel the regret of that.
		
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			But on an average, people spend between four and six hours on their phones, on social media and
various things. And if you ask them, What did you get get out of the six hours? We have no answer.
So six hours of lifespan, which is irretrievable.
		
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			Doesn't bother us at all. Whereas $20 or $100, which is replaceable
		
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			bothers us. So
		
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			what do we value?
		
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			What do we measure? What do we have a sense of loss about when we lose it? time or money?
		
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			You see how powerful this is?
		
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			Any business has to players,
		
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			business organization, whatever you wanna call it has two players, sellers and buyers, suppliers and
consumers, providers and beneficiaries. My question to you is who are your consumers? Who are your
beneficiaries? Who are your buyers?
		
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			The success of the business depends on how well the beneficiaries like the service or products.
Successful businesses constantly see customer consumer satisfaction and opinion in GE, which I have
been working with from 1994. We used to call it voc voice of the customer. These will be meetings
where customers random customers across the world were invited to come to that particular GE
business and talk to GE executives about their experience in dealing with whatever GE business it
was.
		
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			Joe of the executives was simply to listen listen respectfully, ask questions to clarify and solve
problems, never to justify or give excuses. Now all of this is recorded. It was a highly effective
process, and I believe it was one of the major reasons for customers.
		
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			are very high customer retention and loyalty.
		
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			My question to you, school owners and teachers is, do you do this?
		
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			Who do you talk to? Do you have a voice of customer? System? Who do you talk to? When did you do
that last? What did they say? Did you record it?
		
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			Then what changes did you make? What was the result of those changes?
		
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			Why am I asking these questions, not only because I'm a consultant, and I do this in the corporate
world, but because what you don't measure, you don't know what you don't know. You can't control or
guarantee what you don't measure, you cannot improve.
		
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			Next question, who is this for any school for
		
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			children? Really?
		
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			Then why do you have parent teacher meetings?
		
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			Where are the children in these meetings? And if they are present, what is their role?
		
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			Let's make our schools truly for the children. Not use children as an excuse for owners and teachers
and administrators, staff and a whole host of others to make money in a way that's convenient and
easy for them. Not necessarily for the children.
		
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			Let's create a system where the one who was getting paid to teach passes or fails for succeeding or
failing to teach.
		
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			We apply this rule in everything in life, except schools.
		
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			The lives and careers of children are ruined, because they had incompetent disinterested teachers.
But those teachers still get their salaries and increments at the end of the year. No problem. Is
this fair? Or even model?
		
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			How can we sleep in peace?
		
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			Here's a quiz. It's an easy quiz.
		
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			What do you call a place where inmates come in and the gate is shut. They cannot leave until the
gate is opened at the end of their time in the facility.
		
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			Inmates are segregated by age as if data manufacture the most important thing about human being.
They are seated in rows behind rows. So that the second row onwards, each inmate gets to look at the
back of somebody's head all day long. Now, how inspiring can that be? Inmates are not allowed to
speak at will or to anyone other than the authority and that only after taking permission.
		
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			They are not allowed to disagree. Dissent is seen as rebellion and treated accordingly. Every
decision that affects the inmates is taken by the authorities. And the inmates are not consulted
about any decision, even though every decision affects them.
		
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			Any tendency to try to become independent question authority suggest improvements promote
responsibility is seen as evil and punished. In short, all life skills that are necessary to succeed
in society carriers marriage, like teamwork, conflict resolution, critical skills to scenario
planning, communication influencing decision making and leadership are not taught and where they
emerge, despite not being taught, or mercilessly ruthlessly, brutally eradicated.
		
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			The time of the inmates while they're in the facility is strictly regulated, with punishments for
not following the rules, all of which are imposed upon the inmates without their voice or choice.
		
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			What time they eat, and sleep and play and work are all regulated, and have nothing to do with
whether they want to do any of those things at the stage of times.
		
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			Inmates are not even allowed the freedom to go to the toilet without the humiliation of asking
permission publicly.
		
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			Inmates spend specific periods of time in each activity and Unbreak which they are informed about by
ringing bells or buzzers. They and their teachers included are not considered responsible enough to
look at a watch or look at a clock on the wall and go to the next class. Interestingly, nobody
objects.
		
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			That's the level of conditioning where the person doesn't even consider himself to be worthy of
being treated with respect.
		
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			That's great for all dictators. Because where there is no dissatisfaction, there can be no
rebellion.
		
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			Inmates are tested supposedly for knowledge by their ability to random recall discrete disconnect
		
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			add bits of information during a specific time window.
		
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			If someone is unable to recall a bit of information in that window, but does that five minutes after
the bell rings, he has failed the test. Depending on the level of this test, it can mean the
difference between life and this is called a test of knowledge. But in reality, it's a test of
memory alone, without any understanding, but how the bits of information that connected or can be
used. It's an exercises it's an exercise in connecting dots, not in connecting them. Finally, during
this test, if any inmate seeks help, or responds to a call of help from another inmate, they are
punished. Individual, even toxic competition is encouraged and rewarded, and teamwork is suppressed
		
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			and penalized. What do you call this institution?
		
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			What is the name for it?
		
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			Some of you are saying school some of you are saying jail. Both of you are correct.
		
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			Our schools and corporate organizations, including government, are the most totally autocratic
systems in the world.
		
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			Which is why we have oligarchies masquerading as democracies, and nobody to question this. None of
this is surprising because it all begins in the schools which are run on the lines of prisons.
Naturally, all the oppressed they're in have only one single goal in life, to be able to give it
back to be able to give orders Instead of obeying them.
		
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			The only system they know is the autocratic prison model. And they're all aspiring jailers, talk to
any corporate head about collaboration, employee participation and decision making, electing bosses
instead of them being imposed on them from top down, and guarding dissent and questioning and all
such symbols of self respect and freedom. And you see, 100 look come into his eyes. And if you
listen carefully, you can hear a worrying sound, interspersed with squeaks that is terrified little
brain, desperately seeking escape routes from this threatening, highly threatening conversation.
		
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			Incidentally, unless like me, you are also among the exalted ranks of the voluntarily unemployable,
don't ask such questions, or you will learn the meaning of the ejection seat, perhaps to
graphically. Now, what kind of schools who really need
		
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			to answer this question, let's look at society.
		
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			Because schools are the birthplace of those who will mourn and change and marriage and rule society.
		
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			So ask, before you ask, what kind of schools do we need?
		
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			Ask, what kind of society do you want to live in?
		
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			What kind of society whatever,
		
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			and factor yourself into the equation, because it is about you.
		
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			Before we go there, let's be clear that education and schooling are two different things, and not
always compatible with each other. That's why Mark Twain said, I have never let schooling come in
the way of education.
		
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			I've never let schooling come in the way of education. For those who understand although we have a
word called moussaka, Sybase ahavath. It used to mean noble, honorable, principled, learned,
carriages, chivalrous, and all such qualities. Today, it merely means literate, can read and write.
		
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			That's how we have gutted the whole idea of education, we have reduced it to a means of earning a
living alone. Whereas education was supposed to be for life.
		
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			By creating responsible citizens, not merely as a means to earn a living,
		
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			the thirst for knowledge, the freedom to seek it, and understanding how to apply the learning are
all not a part of what we call schooling. And the results are painfully visible.
		
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			Education is not the responsibility of schools and teachers alone, but must be a partnership in
parenting between parents, teachers, and children. All three are stakeholders. Children are the
biggest stakeholders, and they must have a say in what happens. Parenting cannot be outsourced. You
can't pay someone to raise your children, just like you can't pay someone to diet on your behalf. If
it is yours, you raise it. The school is your partner but only you are the parent that teach
		
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			As not your substitute, she or he is your resource, your help, but only you are the parent. Jana is
beneath your feet or mother, not the teachers and you do your father or the door of Jana, for your
child, not the teacher. If you want the privilege, you must pay the price comes with the territory.
		
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			Education must therefore create individuals who are noble, kind, compassionate, learner,
disciplined, principled, have excellent manners, courage, the ability to think and analyze, to
communicate to lead by example, and aware of their accountability to the one to whom is our return.
		
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			A lot of
		
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			reading and writing and learning different kinds of information and so on is one facet of education.
It's not its purpose, because give importance to it because only as one of the elements of
education, not to the exclusion of everything else.
		
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			And also Allah is Allah is LM, focused on only two things in his tarbiyah of his Sahaba.
		
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			Those two guided every decision and action that they took
		
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			one Taqwa developing Taqwa.
		
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			The purpose of education, is to develop Taqwa. That why is the concern to please Allah subhanaw
taala in everything we say or do without exception, that ye is not fear of Allah. But the fear of
displeasing the one we love the most. The more we love Allah, the more we fear to displease him.
That comes from knowing Allah, having a relationship with Him, and being aware of his presence in
our lives at all times. How do we develop that in our children? How do we measure progress? And
since only a lighted lamp can light another? What's the situation with our own parents and teachers
out on taqwa?
		
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			What are our metrics to assess ourselves? This will give you one pointer. Look at your income and
what you eat. If these two are not allowed, it doesn't matter what else you do. There is no Taqwa to
speak of. How can parents who earn haram and eat and feed their children haram? Expect to raise
children who are Moutoku? Ask yourself this question.
		
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			Number two, develop your class. Number one, developing Taqwa. Number two developing a club. That was
the foundation is the power source from where everything comes at a club is the manifestation and
action of that.
		
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			This begins with how we treat children and those who have less power than we do, as they see. So
they do. Children listen with their eyes. They don't care what you say until they see what you do.
If you treat them like they are incapable of being responsible of self regulation of planning and
executing those plans, incapable of working together in teams, they form and pick leaders for that
is exactly what will happen.
		
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			They will be incapable of all these things. This is called a self fulfilling prophecy in psychology.
You, you imagine something and it happens. By I'm not against guiding by all means guide them, but
there is a world of difference between guiding and directing. If you have a doubt, ask what happens
if they decide not to follow my guidance. But to arrive at the result by a different route.
		
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			The goal is non negotiable. But the route does not need to be what happens if they ask why should
they do this task? And how is it likely to help them in life?
		
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			If you can answer that question that ask why is that child learning that stuff? Why should the child
learn what you want him to learn? When even you don't know why
		
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			o'clock has tested in how we deal with conflict and difference of opinion? Can we disagree without
being disagreeable? How do we treat dissent? Do we accept it? Encourage it and use it as an asset or
suppress it and treat it as rebellion and treason and destroy the dissenter? Which one do you do?
		
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			I'm calling this point 2.1 Because it's part of the same second point which is developing a clock
and that is developing collaborative decision making. Model is Assura. As you know, Allah subhanaw
taala decreed this in the Quran and as was said and practiced it. We see evidence of this in
		
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			I made a decision that like the Battle of our battle of butter, and the Battle of jihad, where he
took, he consulted his Sahaba. And he took their advice. And we see how he took the advice of his
Sahaba. insula, Jose via
		
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			mother who was one of the Alana in a very critical matter. And in the Battle of Allah hazhar Battle
of Honda, where he took the advice of Silva and farcical Delano, we don't have the time to go into
the details of all these wonderful incidents in the Sierra wonderful teaching stories, but look and
look them up yourself. And sometimes there is an opportunity, I will tell you that there are many
other instances, the Syrah, but these are enough, Inshallah, the final combination of this was in
the fact that he did not nominate his successor, salallahu Alaihe Salam, no matter how open opinions
about that today, the fact remains that he didn't name anyone.
		
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			In my view, this was because of two things. One, he knew who they would pick, and that was the one
he wanted to succeed him. And secondly, because he wanted them to come to their decision on their
own, so that they would then support the successor.
		
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			Sure, there was a risk that their choice may have been different from his, but that's the risk that
every coach takes, and which is a test of his coaching. The coaches never on the field, but no
coach, word, the name will put untrained players in the field and expect them to win. And no coach
will ever will ever train his team in one game, and expect them to play a totally different game,
which they never learned, and in which everything they learned results in a penalty. Yet, that's
precisely what we do in our schools.
		
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			We conditioned children to unquestioning obedience, to blindly obey authority, never to decide
anything on their own, but to bow in submission to whatever is imposed from on high, no matter how
stupid, inconvenient or unfair it may be. We retrain them and condition them to value internal
competition, no matter how toxic and distrust and we punish collaboration and teamwork, to show up
the force of each other, and to snitch on our colleagues. We teach them their friends and neighbors
and colleagues must be suspected. And then we expect them to do the opposite of all this, and create
a society that is compassionate and equitable and just and non discriminatory and collaborative and
		
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			kind and caring. I mean, we expect them to stand up to oppression and to question authority, we
expect them to vote to go vote good people into power and bad people out. In short, we expect them,
we expect from them the opposite of all that we taught and conditioned them to do.
		
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			Sadly, we are very successful. So they are completely incapable of doing anything else. I noticed a
sign of insanity, where you teach somebody something and you expect them to do the opposite. It's a
sign of insanity.
		
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			To me, on whose part is that?
		
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			Who is the insane person here?
		
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			Let me ask you, what do you think will happen if you give those who are affected by the rules, the
children the opportunity to make the rules? After all, that's what democracy and freedom is all
about, isn't it? When our children supposed to learn to use democracy and freedom, to value it to
deal with problems that may arise and to practice it responsibly, when you are saying to yourself,
Okay, all this is very well, but where does this happen? It is practical. Let me tell you a story. A
true story. My story. It was 1990 and I was the manager of nuuma real estates in Kanyakumari
district in Tamil Nadu in South India, that consisted of two states, two factories and a school. The
		
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			original Higher Secondary School was a co educational school with 1200 students and 75 staff. The
students came from poor families who survived on subsistence agriculture, and any manual labor they
could get in the evenings. Almost invariably, the men would get drunk. And domestic violence was a
major social evil. When these children encountered discrimination, and ill treatment from teachers
also at school, you can imagine what they did what this did to their confidence, enthusiasm for
learning. Education was the only lifeline out of that society, but sadly, they were not getting it.
Despite all the money that the trust we ran the school had invested in the school. The medium of
		
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			instruction was terrible, but English language was taught as a subject in the curriculum.
		
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			The school was partially aided by the government of Tamil Nadu in the form of salaries for some
subject teachers, while the trust funded everything else including
		
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			All capital expenditure to build and maintain all the buildings and infrastructure. When I first
visited the school to take stock of what was in store for me, I saw that it was built on about two
acres of land, and had nice spacious classrooms with plenty of light and ventilation. But the walls
were covered with graffiti. And the grounds grounds were like a massive garbage dump with paper and
plastic and trash everywhere. The children were in the dumps as regards academic work, to wish the
board exam results amply bore witness, but on their feet, they were very agile.
		
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			A little observation showed me why it seemed to me that the teachers operated on the principle that
if you if you would get your hands on a child, he was beating us ever, why beat the child? If he
did? If he did nothing? The answer is, he did not do anything now, but maybe he did it earlier, or
in future if I do it. So when you catch him beaten,
		
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			it's good for him. The relationship between teachers and students was adversarial. To put it
politely. They were like enemies to each other. I spent a couple of days in the school trying to get
as much data by direct observation as I could, then I requested that master to call a staff meeting
for me to address. Now that is another story which I will not tell you just now. But after that
meeting, introduced the practice of a weekly staff meeting, which I would attend. Now, strictly
speaking, this was not what I would recommend to anyone in my position. And because as the head of
the school to whom the headmaster reported, because it's the job of the headmaster to get these
		
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			things done. But after seeing what the state of the school was, I decided that he needed a strong
support, at least initially. So we would meet every Monday the last class period, I did not want to
detain teachers after school, as it would be difficult for them to take their novel,
		
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			public transport their bus home, the meeting was work. And so we did it during normal working hours,
they appreciated that. And that made the meetings more productive.
		
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			Then asked for a general student assembly, and I met the whole school.
		
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			So after the usual spiel about improving the school, and so on, I did two things with got them to
sit up and listen, I introduced myself and I said, my name is Mesa our big, and I'm the new
correspondent of your school. I want to know what you think about the school so that we can make it
a place that you love to come to.
		
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			That I had asked, I said tell me, are you happy with the school? Are you happy with how the school
has been run? Now? There was total silence. Of course, I expected that. But total silence. They
looked at each other. They looked at the teacher, they looked at me as a to say, using their phones?
Do you think we are fools? Do you think that you can do all this stuff and we believe you and we
tell you what we feel go fly a kite man, Mr. whatever your name is.
		
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			I could see all these in the faces of those sitting in the front row. And I knew that they're
representing the others.
		
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			So I said to them, I want you to elect a class representative, who will be a member of the Student
Council, which I'm going to set up. So your class representative will represent you. So do this
carefully. I'm giving you one hour of free time, starting now. I want the class representatives to
meet me for our first student council meeting in one hour.
		
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			I let them go. That's amazing how many things mostly negative that we believe, or at least our
teachers and other adults believe, believe that about children, and not giving them any instruction
of these kids about how to conduct the election. I'm not saying that it was done totally fairly or
efficiently, or that every child had a chance to exercise his or her choice. All I knew is that
whoever was elected in one hour was somebody with innate leadership ability.
		
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			It took a bit longer than one hour. But we had our first meeting.
		
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			I said that I set the ground rules. The Student Council I told them will be comprised of class
representatives from each class, who will be appointed for a period of one term which is four
months.
		
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			This is so that as many of you as possible get to experience being leaders. Class Reps can be
reelected for a second term, but then must sit out two terms before standing for election again.
		
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			The Student Council will also have three teachers as under the non voting members. Their role will
be purely advisory to provide information and support for whatever the student council decides to
do.
		
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			I said to them, you don't need to follow their advice. But be sure to ask questions to to understand
fully what they want you to do. Then if you still don't want to do that if it still doesn't make
sense to you, ignore it and do what you think is the
		
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			Best way to get the results you want. These teachers will change every two jobs so that they can
provide continuity to the new student reps, which get elected every time
		
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			that I said to them, the student council will decide how the school will be run. Any questions?
		
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			Hand shot up, I was very happy because questions indicate interest. Sir, what do you mean? How
school will be run?
		
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			Now all this was done in Tamil with the language of the place and so I speak Tamil fluently. So this
was easy.
		
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			Sir, what do you mean? How the school how will the school bearer, I said I mean, start and end
times, holidays, class duration, whatever you want. It is your school. And from now on you and I'm
talking to the kids, you will decide how it will be run. And remember, what I asked you the
assembly, are you happy with the school as it is? I said I meant it. Even if you did not believe me,
here is your opportunity to change whatever you are not happy about.
		
00:31:10 --> 00:31:54
			Now the strange looks all around. Some teachers looked at me as if they looked at me with pity
really, some smart, all looked highly doubtful. The students just deadpan mean, no expression. I
knew what was going on. As I have done similar, I had done similar initiatives in the past in
corporate organizations. That's another story. The first respond to all chain initiatives is
suspicion. It's very important to remember this, people find it difficult to believe that the people
they have been dealing with for a long time can change their behavior completely. The solution is
consistency and persistence. announce what you are going to do and do it without worrying about
		
00:31:54 --> 00:32:39
			reactions. Once people see you behaving in congruence with what you stated, they go around, and they
realize that you are actually sincere, and they will start trusting you. But this takes time. And
it's important for you as the change agent not to react to anything that they say or do. People
listen with their eyes. They do not care what you say until they see what you do. In this case, our
children had gotten used to being abused and treated without respect. And for them to believe that
teachers would not beat them anymore, and that they will not only be treated with respect, but here
was the highest authority in the school as myself, telling them that henceforth the school would be
		
00:32:39 --> 00:32:45
			run, according to their wishes, was simply too much to swallow. So they waited and watched.
		
00:32:47 --> 00:32:50
			So I said to them, are you happy with how the school is run now.
		
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			You can tell us, you can tell me, all of us, your teachers and your ad budget. And I want to know,
and nothing will happen to you, no matter what you say. Nobody will get a prize. And nobody will be
punished. And I said You have my word for it.
		
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			So I got some tentative responses from the front rows. No, we don't like the school as it is.
		
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			I didn't push. I didn't tell them to give me details about what they didn't like. And so I left it.
I knew that I knew what they wanted to say. And I also knew that they would say not then
		
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			not yet.
		
00:33:30 --> 00:33:40
			That there was even this first response was not a credit to me, but showed me the desperate
situation that they that the students were in
		
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			that needed the change, they needed to change. And I was determined that it would happen.
		
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			So I said to the good.
		
00:33:55 --> 00:34:18
			Now you get to you got to change that. Do what you think will make the school the best school in the
state and Governor. That's what I want. Do you want that? Yes. In next week, twice in in next week's
meeting, I want you to suggest to me what you would like to change to make the school the best
school in Tamela rice and this is your goal, how to make this the best school in the state.
		
00:34:20 --> 00:34:44
			I knew that for them even to think of themselves like that was a stretch. But they started thinking
of themselves and their school and the school as theirs. And that will make my whole goal was that
if they start thinking of themselves in their schools as theirs, they would start taking pride in
it. If that happened, the rest would be easy and inevitable.
		
00:34:45 --> 00:34:54
			It all starts with a thought which can do desire which produces the energy during that into the into
the channels of strategy and you achieve your goal.
		
00:34:55 --> 00:35:00
			I told them that I would attend their weekly weekly meeting but they couldn't meet as often as
		
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			They wanted at any time they want,
		
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			I set some ground rules, I told them that if they identified a problem, I also I wanted them to
think it through and suggest a solution that we could apply.
		
00:35:14 --> 00:35:26
			I did not want them to become professional protesters, I wanted them to become problem solvers. So
whatever problem they mentioned, would be their problem, and who better than them to suggest the
solutions.
		
00:35:28 --> 00:36:06
			The second rule was that the syllabus was non negotiable, that had to be completed. So if they
wanted to take time off one day, they would have to work extra time or another day to complete the
syllabus. Finally, I reiterated that they would be treated with respect, but that they should also
treat teachers with respect. That meant that whatever they wanted to do, they would have to discuss
it with their teachers and get the agreement, I would be happy to facilitate that discussion they
wanted me to, but that was their responsibility, you will not impose anything on them without the
agreement. And the same courtesy would apply to the teachers. Everyone agreed. They didn't know how
		
00:36:06 --> 00:36:13
			it would work in practice, but it sounded nice. Teachers also looked happier after hearing this.
		
00:36:14 --> 00:36:17
			In the next week's meeting, I produced a map of the school grounds
		
00:36:19 --> 00:36:31
			on which I had drawn lines, to divided into squares, I said to them, each square is for one class,
it is your class total mean interval interval, the word for garden is total.
		
00:36:33 --> 00:36:49
			This is your total, this is your this is your class garden, please pick the square you want and
write your class name in the square. Every month, I'm going to have a competition. And we'll give a
prize for the best kept total, Best Kept garden
		
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			can every district is a fertile place. And these children came from farmers families. Also almost
overnight, the school got cleaned up, all the garbage disappeared. And gardens were planted
everywhere except the sports fields, which was my responsibility to maintain the detail also bought
into the new spirit and their skepticism, skepticism turned into enthusiasm. Two or three weeks into
the scheme in the weekly meeting of the student council. They asked me the student reps. They said,
Sir, we want permission to come to school on Sunday.
		
00:37:29 --> 00:37:35
			So I said, sure I have no problem with giving you permission. But why do you want to come to school
on Sunday?
		
00:37:36 --> 00:37:39
			They said we want to clean up these walls. They look very dirty.
		
00:37:40 --> 00:37:50
			Now, what was all the graffiti, who put the graffiti there themselves. I didn't tell them. It was
there. They said can be come on Sunday. We love the walls.
		
00:37:51 --> 00:38:11
			So I said, fantastic. Let's do that. I said I will also come and I said I will provide you with the
limewash with the whitewash. And we will clean and paint the walls and then we will all have lunch
together. mytreat they were delighted. And that's what we did. We spent the whole day cleaning up
the walls and so on painting it. And then we all had a nice big fit.
		
00:38:12 --> 00:38:39
			Nothing's happened week after week. Change is gradual, even when it is driven strongly torqued down,
like I was forced to do. exam results improved dramatically, because both teachers and students
started to take pride in their work. The cherry on the cake was that in the annual science fair, in
our Rotterdam high secondary school, the robot was placed in the second place in the state of Tamil
Nadu
		
00:38:40 --> 00:38:48
			for a school which was so bad that they were losing teachers and losing children. To be there was
amazing.
		
00:38:50 --> 00:39:26
			Let me ask let me ask you this question, which I'm sure is in your minds, in the student council
creator revolution, you don't have a teacher rebellion on my hands, did I get assaulted or even
mildly abused? None of the above. Now, there is that the reality is that people in authority live in
fear. They think that they need to impose authority by force, or the whole house of cards will
collapse around the years. The reality is that if you take people into confidence, and show them how
following your method will help them to achieve their goals. You will have trouble holding them
back.
		
00:39:28 --> 00:39:31
			You don't need to encourage them. You will have to put some brakes on them.
		
00:39:32 --> 00:39:59
			Mr. Raja, high secondary schools, teachers and students were no different. They wanted their school
to be the best of the state, but they were caught in this cycle of negativity that a lot of us get
caught into without realizing my advantage was that I was new. I was not part of this morass of low
self esteem and deteriorating performance that they were stuck in. So I could institute changes more
easily. The good thing was that once we are broke
		
00:40:00 --> 00:40:04
			on the ice, I had everyone's full cooperation and we never looked back.
		
00:40:05 --> 00:40:21
			Let's ask what happens in our schools? As I mentioned earlier, if you want to see what's our values,
see what they measure? What do we measure? What are the metrics we use? Do we measure that? What and
o'clock? Do you even know how to measure them?
		
00:40:22 --> 00:40:39
			Let me give you a quick sketch of how to develop these metrics. Take the value you want to measure.
In this case, taqwa. Then ask, what are the behaviors, which will show that the person is behaving
with Taqwa? in which situations is stuck or likely to be tested?
		
00:40:41 --> 00:41:28
			What was the person do in such a situation? Then? No does not ask children to maintain a journal and
note down what happens with them, both internally and externally? What was the internal struggle
they had? And what were the thoughts and emotions and inhibitions that they had to overcome? And
what did they say? Or do? How did they overcome those things? Finally, if it didn't go the way it
should have, what was the learning? And what is the damage control they did? Let the parents send
you, the teacher also keep notes, then periodically have a discussion with the child and his or her
parents focus on the positive and reward the child use the negative purely as a teaching moment, not
		
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			to punish or criticize, likewise, for a club. Remember, it's a collaborative effort, which is worth
the time and trouble that it needs. Because we are talking about transforming society, and creating
a legacy of honor for all of us.
		
00:41:47 --> 00:41:56
			As they say, in Africa, it takes the whole village to raise a child and it is worth it. Because that
child will change the path of destiny for the world
		
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			might say is it all? Just two things only taqwa and o'clock? I say to you, yes. Because values drive
behavior. And behavior drives results, drives results. Taqwa is the core value. And Aflac covers all
behavior, the rest follows.
		
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			Now you say well, what about exams?
		
00:42:20 --> 00:42:50
			How do we know what the children learned? If you don't test them? I didn't say don't test. I said
test them for knowledge, not for random recall. They are human River, not silicon chips. Here's
agile here is how to test for knowledge and not random recall. Instead of asking state Archimedes
principle, ask, please give one example where Archimedes principle is applied. And one example where
you would apply it.
		
00:42:52 --> 00:43:01
			If someone is following an argument is principle, let them look it up. It doesn't matter. That
doesn't matter because in real life, they wouldn't be able to look it up. But how to apply it must
come from that
		
00:43:02 --> 00:43:08
			application is the real and only proof of learning.
		
00:43:09 --> 00:43:15
			Everything is possible if you want to do it. So ask, Do I want to change
		
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			I rest my case. Thank you